FAH client for WHS (Windows Home Server)?

[spaceman]

G'day.

I'm a PS3 owner and a Windows Home Server owner

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 http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver/default.mspx

. I use the FAH client for my PS3 - it's brilliant, but my PS3 is not an always-on device so is not contributing 24/7.

My Windows Home Server *is* an always-on device, and at any given time is under pretty low-load - which makes it ideal for running an FAH client. Windows Home Server is built on top of the Windows Server 2003. It is possible to (try to) install any other software you like on the WHS (typically via remote desktop), *but* my understanding is that any software installed in this way is "at your owk risk". In other words, the add-in method is the strongly recommended approach. Here's a list of add-ins that already exist:

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http://forum.wegotserved.co.uk/index.php?autocom=downloads

I for one simply do not want to put my WHS at risk by installing software outside of the add-in method. If something goes wrong, and my WHS is corrupted, I will not be a happy bunny.

So all that remains is for some bright spark to write a FAH add-in for WHS - and I'll wager most WHS users will fall over themselves to install it!

For anyone who's up for the challenge, here's a head start:

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http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb425866.aspx

Software Development Kit for Windows Home Server

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http://www.wegotserved.co.uk/2008/08/29/microsoft-publish-windows-home-server-development-guidelines/

A news item with more intro/background info

Here's hoping!

[BrokenWolf]

All Home Server is an Add-On for Windows Server 2003 with a cute little gui for non-sysadmins to "manage" the server. I was playing around with the Beta and RC versions of WHS and had FAH loaded on it as a Service. Ran fine with no fuss or muss.

If you are not familiar with Server 2003 then I would wait for someone to develop that add-on for you.

Broken

[John Naylor]

If your home server has a VGA output the FAH client can be installed and run just like a normal program, as WHS has a normal windows GUI when run with a directly connected display (or so I am told). If you have to connect over the network then you will need an add-on to do it AFAIK, and I am not aware of any such add-ons.

[coo-coo]

I too am trying to run the F@H GPU client on my WHS box.
Does anyone have this working? I read on the MS site

http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-U ... 8a7e548909

that there are beta nvidia drivers that work, but I've not tried that yet. I was wondering if I simply install the CUDA library if the GPU client would run with my 8800GT card under WHS?

[Grandpa_01]

I don't know about Nvidia but my WHS runs the GPU2 client with the Windows XP ATI Catylst drivers. So if the ATI XP drivers work my guess is the Nvidia XP drivers will work.

[coo-coo]

Last night I tried three different versions of the XP Nvidia drivers, and my server is now pretty much hosed up.

The problem seems to be all the 'extras' that are attempted to be installed with the nvidia drivers (display extension control panel for one). WHS does NOT play well with these things. Ran out of time trying to back stuff out to a point where it is actually working again 100%.

Has anyone been successful with this? What's the key - I know I'm just missing something.

[bruce]

Others have found that they need to run one of the driver cleaner programs to get rid of traces of the old version before they install a different version of the drivers. The standard upgrade process doesn't always work very well. This suggestion applies to standard Windows versions and may or may not really pertain to WHS, but it's certainly worth a try.

[Votick]

Im folding on a AMD Athlon 3500+ and 8600GT on my WHS.
It runs fine. No need for addins

[dirk]

I have been running Folding@home on my Windows Home Server (HP MediaSmart Server EX470 and MSS EX495) for over a week now without any problems following the instructions over at HomeServerLand and using that wrapper addin to display the stats/info directly inside of the WHS console.

Good stuff!